SEP public meetings in Britain

Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war and the struggle for socialism

5 October 2005

The Hurricane Katrina disaster exposed the rotten character of the social and political system in the United States.

The Bush administration’s indifference to the suffering of the New Orleans poor—black and white—was an expression of its political role as the representative of a financial oligarchy that draws its fabulous wealth from the exploitation of the American and international working class. This elite has demanded the gutting of vital social services that are considered to be an impermissible drain on corporate profits.

It is in the interests of this same privileged elite that the war against Iraq is being waged—to secure its hegemony over the oil riches of the entire Middle East.

The lessons to be drawn from the Katrina disaster have a particular relevance in Britain. This is the country where the free-market nostrums of Bush are most closely emulated by the Blair government, America’s partner in crime in the Iraq war and the ever-more bloody and disastrous occupation.

Opposition to war and the ever worsening social conditions facing millions of working people so graphically revealed by Katrina must take the form of a political struggle against the profit system—one that unites the working class of every country against a common enemy. So too with the defence of democratic rights, which are under systematic attack in the name of combating terrorism.

To discuss these fundamental issues, please make plans to attend one of a series of public meetings being held in Britain by the Socialist Equality Party, based on the analysis elaborated on the World Socialist Web Site.